Challenging the prevailing view of the meters of the Jacobean dramatist, John Webster (d.1634), this study demonstrates that they are in fact a principled instantiation of the iambic pentameter. Drawing on current linguistic theory, it argues that Webster's verse preferentially exploits a mirror-image distribution of metrical variations within the line. It analyzes how these distinctive meters contribute to the language of Webster's plays, and it contrasts his metrical practices with those of his fellow dramatists and of Donne.

Zusammenfassung
"Betty Jane Schlerman has written one of the very few book-length studies of verse meter within the tradition of generative metrics, and her book is among the most important contributions to that tradition. Her subject, Webster's dramatic verse, has always been one of the most challenging for metrical theorists. His plays make an ideal laboratory for both the metrical and the phonological theorist, and Schlerman has conducted her investigations within this laboratory more thoroughly and more convincingly than anyone else to date." (Gilbert Youmans, University of Missouri-Columbia)
"Schlerman shows that the fascinating and unusual metrical system of John Webster is not lawless, as has previously been suggested, but rather can be reduced to a set of rules. The rules she proposes are unusual, and significantly expand the range of phenomena that a general theory of metrics must account for. Schlerman offers interesting suggestions on how such a theory should evolve. Metrists in both literature and linguistics will find this volume well worth reading." (Bruce Hayes, University of California, Los Angeles)

Inhalt
Contents: Overview of current linguistic theory of meter: extrametrical syllables: «mismatches» of stressed syllables: psychological limits of metrical variation.